Five Hawkeyes will be recognized at the 2023 1stGen@Iowa Awards and Recognition Ceremony on Thursday, Nov. 9, as part of the weeklong National First-Generation College Celebration.
The awards, established by the UI First-Generation Task Force, recognizes first-generation student achievements as well as advocacy and support efforts of faculty and staff.
The First-Generation Student Achievement Award is given to one undergraduate first-generation student and one graduate or professional first-generation student who have made great achievements during their time on campus, committed to achieving academically, and paved the way for other first-generation students to succeed at Iowa.
The Award for Outstanding First-Generation Student Advocacy is awarded to faculty, staff, or administrators who support first-generation student success and are strong advocates for those students on campus.
Student recipients are Michelle Bremer Gama and Madeline Carlson. Faculty and staff recipients are Anna Bostwick Flaming, John Bruno III, and Jennifer Haylett.
First-Generation Student Achievement Award
Michelle Bremer Gama is a fourth-year MD-MPH student in the UI Carver College of Medicine who grew up in San Diego, California Bremer Gama grew up in a low-income family and worked throughout college to pay for her education. During her third year of medical school, she founded the student organization First Generation and Low Income in Medicine (FGLIMed) to help solve issues similar to those she experienced during medical school and to build a community of students with similar backgrounds. Bremer Gama hopes to pursue a career as a pediatric anesthesiologist in an academic setting where she can continue her research.
Madeline Carlson is a fourth-year undergraduate student majoring in neuroscience. Originally from Colorado, she came to Iowa for college to be close to extended family. She is a first-generation college student who is passionate about helping other first-generation students feel comfortable and ready to take on college and the workforce after graduation.
Award for Outstanding First-Generation Student Advocacy
Anna Bostwick Flaming is the assistant provost for teaching and learning and director of the Center for Teaching. She leads a team of educational developers in designing programs that center on equity and excellence in teaching and learning, and support faculty, graduate students, and organizational development. In addition to being an affiliate faculty member in the Department of Gender, Women’s and Sexuality Studies, Bostwick Flaming is a member of the Teaching Effectiveness Task Force, the Excellence in Teaching and Learning Network, and a founding member of the Provost’s Task Force on First Generation College Students. Bostwick Flaming’s scholarly interests include inclusive teaching, course and curriculum design, organizational development, the Scholarship of Educational Development, the history of higher education, and the history of gender. She is completing a four-year term leading the Professional and Organizational Development Network in Higher Education’s Scholarship Committee. She serves as a contributing editor for To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development.
John Bruno III joined the UI in January 2014. He serves as the assistant athletics director for academics in Student-Athlete Academic Services, where he oversees the tutoring and academic support for UI student-athletes. Additionally, he is the academic coordinator for football and men’s and women’s basketball. Bruno received a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice administration form Southern Illinois University in 1999. He began his career serving youth and their families as a substance abuse and community outreach counselor at a non-profit youth organization in the Chicago area for six years before becoming a program therapist at a juvenile detention center. He returned to Southern Illinois University in 2007 to complete a second bachelor’s degree in communications and a master’s degree in kinesiology (sports studies). Bruno spent two years as a TV anchor and radio commentator before shifting his career to student-athlete academic services. He has spent the past 13 years working in academic services at three universities: Southern Illinois, Northern Illinois, and the UI.
Jennifer Haylett teaches in the Department of Sociology and Criminology as an associate professor of instruction. She is also the director of undergraduate studies and honors advisor for the department. Haylett earned a bachelor’s degree in sociology from the University of Idaho and a master’s degree and PhD in sociology from the University of California-Davis. Her academic interests are in the areas of gender, family, medical sociology, sociology of reproduction, economic sociology, and qualitative research methods.